XL: Numbers Ending in .848 Appear Incorrectly

ID: Q161234

3.00 4.00 4.00a 5.00 5.00c 7.00 97 WINDOWS kbusage kbprb

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0
Microsoft Excel for Windows NT, version 5.0
Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 3.0, 4.0, 4.0a, 5.0, 5.0c

SYMPTOMS

On a Microsoft Excel worksheet, when you type or calculate a number between 32,768 and 65,535 that contains a decimal portion of .848, the number is evaluated and displayed in the formula bar with a decimal portion of .8479999999.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

This problem may cause results of calculations that use ten decimal places or more to be incorrect by small amounts (by .00000000001). If the cell is formatted for ten decimal places, the value that is displayed in the formula bar is also displayed on the worksheet.

For additional information on this problem, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   Article-ID: Q78113
   TITLE     : Excel: Floating-Point Arithmetic May Give Inaccurate Results

KBCategory: kbusage kbprb KBSubcategory: xlformat xlwin Additional reference words: XL97 3.00 4.00 5.00 7.00 8.0 5.00c 4.00a floating

Keywords          : xlformat xlwin 
Version           : 3.00 4.00 4.00a 5.00 5.00c 7.00
Platform          : WINDOWS

Last Reviewed: December 22, 1996